Step Four: Turn In Your Badge

I wrapped up my internship last week and the experience was everything I’d hoped for and more. I learned about the high-tech data storage business and helped launch a new product. I contributed strategically, though a customer segmentation model, and tactically, through a white paper on data center energy efficiency.

I started this blog saying that there is something oxy-moronic about an internship in entrepreneurship. Short of starting my own business, the internship was the most entrepreneurial experience of my professional life. Figuring out the implications of a new technology in an emerging market was a challenge I feel fortunate to have worked on. The experience was great and I couldn’t have made it there or through without the network I’ve developed at the UC Davis Graduate School of Management.

Thanks for reading my internship blog. For more about me, checkout my bio. If you are a prospective student and want to chat about my internship or the Graduate School of Management in general, you can reach me through the GSM Ambassadors at mbaambassadors@ucdavis.edu.

Step Three: The Green Data Center

When I came to business school I wasn’t interested in energy efficiency. It’s not that I didn’t care about the environment. It’s just that my interest in energy efficiency as a business imperative didn’t start until UC Davis. During my first year I got involved with the Energy Efficiency Center (EEC). The EEC partners UC Davis MBAs with engineering students to evaluate and commercialize promising energy efficient technologies. My experience with the EEC opened my eyes to the commercial potential of energy efficiency technologies.

Fast-forward to my internship. Adaptec had a compelling argument for energy efficiency in the data center. I was tasked with adapting that story to the new product. After reviewing hundreds of pages of reports on IT energy efficiency, I realized two things. First, that the short coming of most energy efficiency research is that it focuses on energy rather than the financial implications of energy. Second, I realized that, once again, I was in way over my head on the technical side. Luckily, I had help.

Working with the Chief Technology Officer (who was interested in energy efficiency), I developed several energy consumption models and a thesis for the paper. After a few late nights and long weekends, we published the paper. It was a challenge to get up to speed on such a technical subject, but the reward of having a concrete product was worth the effort.